Girls basketball: Wave’s late basket dooms Trojans

A hard-fought game had an even harder ending for the Weston High girls varsity basketball team when it hosted New Milford last week.

The Trojans stayed neck and neck with their opponent from start to finish and even had a chance to win it in the remaining seconds. That was when New Milford sank a successful three-point shot for a slim lead that held until the final buzzer sounded to win a 40-38 decision on Monday, Jan. 14.

“That was a heartbreaker,” said Weston head coach Dan Rosen. “I thought we played really well. It was a great game”

Both teams started slowly offensively, each held to single digit scoring in the first quarter, which ended with the Green Wave up 8-7. By halftime the Trojans had gotten that one point back, due to a 35-foot three-pointer by Kristen Caolo at the buzzer, which made it a 20-20 affair.

Not much would change once the second half got underway although the Trojans did go up by a point at the end of three frames (28-27). Throughout the course of the night New Milford was helped by the three-point shot, sinking six in all. The biggest one came with six seconds left in the game.

That was when Juliana Fusco hit one to give her team the lead. Weston could not respond in the time remaining.

Morgan Moubayed led Weston with 15 points, including a three-pointer. She also had four steals on defense.

Anna Mahony scored 12 points. She also had 10 rebounds.

“She did a very nice job rebounding and finishing inside,” said Rosen. “She did an awesome job.”

Zoe Zegers scored six and Caolo sank five.

Visiting Brookfield four days later, the Trojans played well for three quarters according to Rosen. One shaky performance was the difference, however, as they fell 49-35 to the Bobcats.

Weston trailed by just four points (12-8) at the end of the first quarter but it was the second frame that was its undoing. Turnovers by Weston led to easy transition baskets by the Bobcats, who outscored the visitors by a 3-1 margin during that stretch. Weston’s lone points came courtesy of Mahony’s field goal, plus a three-pointer and free throw by Caolo as it trailed 30-14 at halftime.

The Trojans had better luck the rest of the way and actually outscored Brookfield in each of the next two quarters but could not erase the gap.

Mahony led Weston with 19 points. Moubayed and Caolo each sank six, the former also getting one three pointer and the latter two. Zegers scored four.

Weston, now 3-7 overall, is at Pomperaug on Friday at 6 p.m. and is at Stratford on Tuesday at 7.